‘Bishop’s Children’ light the garden with colour
I love this time in the garden, although it’s often our busiest. With beech hedges, both within the garden and along the front boundary, not to mention mixed native hedges around the orchard that all need cutting, there’s plenty to do. It’s hard work, but satisfying when they’re all cut, clippings cleared up and we’re just left with aching muscles and the knowledge that we don’t have to do it again for another year. A more relaxing job has been taking cuttings, particularly from penstemons, salvias and some shrubs – it’s so satisfying when they actually root. The greenhouse is full of ripening tomatoes – both ‘Gardener’s Delight’ and beefsteak ‘Costoluto Fiorentino’. I’m not too sure about this one, although it’s tasty roasted and served on toast for breakfast. There’s plenty of colour around the garden from dahlias in various colours. I sowed seed of dahlia ‘Bishop’s Children’ and have marked a rather nice red-flowered plant to overwinter. Old fashioned shrub rose, ‘Reine des Violettes’, has a few late flowers and rose ‘Desdemona’ is still covered in scented, pinky-white blooms. A hydrangea in a half barrel is looking good and other hydrangeas planted last autumn are settling well into their new positions. Swallows and house martins that have spent the summer here are now preparing to migrate. On my early morning dog walks recently, I’ve observed these birds lined up on electricity wires, stretching their wings. It’s been a real treat as I’ve walked through the fields to suddenly find myself surrounded by the birds, swooping low over the grass. However it was pointed out that I was probably disturbing insects as I walked that they were then feeding on.
Tales from a Country Garden 